Exercises to build strength & endurance

MEDICINE BALL ROTATIONAL PASS/TWIST

Stand back-to-back with a partner, feet shoulders-width apart. Hold a medicine ball in both hands at waist level and rotate or twist to the right, until you can pass the ball to your partner, who has twisted to the left. Now, swivel to the left, and take the ball from your partner, who has swivelled to the right. Do 15 reps in each direction.

If you don’t have a partner, stand with your back to a wall and swivel to the right, holding the ball with both hands, and as far away from your body as you can which makes the exercise more challenging. Touch the ball to the wall, then swivel to the left and repeat. This exercise strengthens your core muscles and improves range of motion.

BOSU SEGMENTED BURPEE

This involves a BOSU ball, a training device that looks like an inflated stability ball cut in half. Stand with a BOSU dome side down on the floor in front of you. Squat with hands on either side of the BOSU and kick leg back into a pushup position. Do one pushup, lowering chest to just above the BOSU. Bring right leg up by right hand, as Gerry Haracsi is seen doing here, then return to pushup position. Bring left leg up by left hand, return to pushup position. Hop both legs forward into squat, stand up, picking up BOSU and raising it over your head. Do five to 10 reps.

Haracsi’s trainer, Brad Kuchinka, includes this exercise as part of a circuit. The various components work the chest and core and stretch out the groin.

“You’re tired when you do it, too, so you’re working your energy systems as well,” Kuchinka explains.

SEATED ROW

Sue Salisbury works out on a rowing machine in the gym. Rowing helps weight loss and improves stamina. It works muscle groups in the arms, legs, back and core, making it one of the most complete aerobic workouts. To get the benefits of rowing at home, without a machine, wrap an exercise band around a sturdy object such as a chair or table leg. If you don’t have anything to wrap the bands around, wrap them around the balls of your feet.

The band should be relatively low to the floor, approximately parallel to your chest when sitting on your buttocks on the floor.

Grasp each end of the exercise band and wrap it once or twice around your wrists, depending on the amount of tension you want. Sit straight, legs straight on the floor in front of you or slightly bent.

Engage abs, sit tall and straight and try not to bend forward at the waist.

Pull elbows back, keeping hands even and tension evenly distributed on each side of the exercise bands. Contract the upper back muscles while you pull the elbows to your side. Slowly release tension and return to starting position, arms pulled forward.

Do one to three sets of 10 to 15 repetitions. The exercise becomes more challenging while seated on an exercise ball.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

View the original article here

http://is.gd/93NrLP

In a pinch to take off pounds by summer?

Did you pile on a few unwanted pounds over the winter months? It's not too late to shed them in time for swimsuit-and-shorts season.

Start right now and you could drop 5 pounds or so before Memorial Day. You could double that loss by July 4 and be in even better shape by August. To help you meet your goal, USA Today's Nanci Hellmich asked several diet book authors and leading exercise experts to offer their best eating and workout tips.

Dawn Jackson Blatner

Author of “The Flexitarian Diet”:

Ask yourself these three magic words before eating anything: “Am I hungry?” It is a quick way to be more connected to what is causing you to eat � whether it's physical hunger or emotions such as stress or boredom.

Write down your calorie intake. It can help keep you honest and increase weight loss.

Aim to have snacks that are a combination of produce and protein. Produce has water and fiber to fill you up, and protein has staying power. So try a pear and string cheese or eat peanut butter on celery or apple.

Satisfy your sweet tooth with tasty trade-offs. Choose individual servings of desserts such as dark chocolate-covered frozen bananas or try dessert-flavored tea such as English toffee.

Bob Greene

Best-selling author, Oprah's personal trainer and one of the authors of “The Life You Want: Get Motivated, Lose Weight, and Be Happy”:

Free up 30 to 60 minutes a day to exercise. “I have heard every excuse on the planet � except a good one,” he says.

Distract yourself while exercising. Work out while watching TV show or a movie or listening to music. And social people should walk or work out with a buddy.

Organize your eating into three meals and one or two snacks a day. And when you find yourself eating outside those times, look at the possibility of that eating being emotional in nature. Write in your journal what might be the source of the emotion causing you to eat.

Write down ways you could treat yourself that don't involve food as well as ways that you could improve your life.

Bill Phillips

Author of Transformation and the best-selling “Body-for-Life”:

Weight-train intensely for about 45 minutes, three times a week, such as Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Do 20 minutes of aerobic exercise three times a week � Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Take Sunday off.

Alternate training the major muscles of the upper and lower body. For example, the first week, train the upper body Monday, the lower body Wednesday and the upper body Friday. The second week, train the lower body Monday, the upper body Wednesday and the lower body Friday.

Always plan your training. Plan what time you are going to exercise, which particular exercises you'll be doing, how much weight you'll be lifting and how long it will take you to complete the session. Keep accurate records.

Bonnie Taub-Dix

Author of “Read It Before You Eat It”:

Motivate yourself. Get a pair of jeans or pants that are too tight and hang them in the kitchen instead of the closet to keep yourself inspired.

Get plenty of sleep. Scientists have found that sleep deprivation increases levels of a hunger hormone and decreases levels of a hormone that makes you feel full. The effects may lead to overeating and weight gain. Try a late afternoon nap instead of cookies.

Pay attention to portions. A 3-ounce portion of meat, poultry or fish is about the size of the palm of your hand or a deck of cards; 1 teaspoon of butter or margarine, a standard postage stamp; a cup of cold cereal, berries or popcorn, a baseball.

Eat out without expanding out. Take a look at the menu online in advance. Get salad dressing on the side.

Louis Aronne

Co-author of “The Skinny on Losing Weight Without Being Hungry”:

Eat a high-protein breakfast such as Greek yogurt, egg whites or cottage cheese. It helps you avoid hunger and cravings later in the day.

Eat as many raw or cooked vegetables as you can. At meals and between meals, it will help fill you up, if you eat them first.

Try to drink water, unsweetened tea, green tea or plain or flavored seltzer before each meal.

Eat from appetizer-size plates. Research shows that small plates make food seem larger and may help you eat less.

Eat slowly. That allows fullness signals more time to reach your brain. Eating the lowest-calorie foods first, such as vegetables, will have the same effect.

© Copyright (c) McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

View the original article here

http://is.gd/ubS5fR

Simple exercises to improve balance

Improving your balance can be as easy as mastering the art of standing on one leg. That’s a good exercise to start with, says exercise physiologist Michael Bracko.

� Stand facing a wall and place both hands on the wall to balance. Lift one leg, hold for five counts, then lower the leg. Lift the other leg, hold for five counts, and lower. The standing knee should be slightly bent. Repeat three times on each leg.

� For a slightly more difficult exercise, hold on to the wall with the left hand, and raise the left foot, balancing on the right leg, holding for five counts. Repeat on the opposite side, raising both legs three times. Ramp it up more by facing the wall but not touching it, and balance on each leg as before.

Personal trainer Sabrena Merrill says simple lunges and squats are great for building leg and core muscles � and also for balance. “When you do a forward lunge,” she says, “you’re training in a very enhanced fashion all the muscles required for walking.”

� To do a lunge, step forward with one leg and bend the knee at 90 degrees, making sure the knee does not go in front of the foot. The body’s weight should be centered and the heel of the back leg lifted. Push off the forward leg to return to a standing position, and repeat with the opposite leg.

� For a squat, stand with feet about hip-width apart and bend at the knees and the hips, pushing the backside out but keeping the head and neck aligned. To do a full squat, stop when the knees are at 90 degrees; a half-squat is between that and a standing position. Make sure the back is straight and aligned with the neck and head, and that the waist is not bent. Arms are forward.

“This is a challenging exercise because you’re putting your body weight on the back half of your foot,” Merrill says. “For many people, it feels like they’re falling backward.” Doing the exercise with a trainer or spotter can offer support.

� Jeannine Stein

View the original article here

http://is.gd/r8f1na

The Best Exercise for Your Lifestyle

For years infomercials have played off the elusive dream of one-stop fitness — a contraption or exercise routine that provides a total body workout to those big and small, young and old.

This one-size-fits-all approach is misguided, according to exercise experts. We should be exercising according to the kind of life we lead — each person is going to bring different exercise needs to the table according to their personal preference and physical capabilities.

ABC News asked leading fitness experts and kinethseiologists to weigh in on which exercises are a best fit for people of various ages, stages of life and level of fitness. As always, experts recommend consulting with a physician before starting any exercise program.

The Couch Potato — aka, the Exercise Newbie:

Expert Favorite: Walking plus weight lifting

They haven’t been friendly with the gym for years, or maybe they were just never the exercise-type, but they’re turning over a new leaf. Former couch potatoes should resist the temptation to jump on the treadmill, fitness experts warn. Exercise tolerance — the amount of exertion one’s body can handle — “is not something to be messed with,” says Jason West, clinical assistant professor in the exercise and sports medicine department at the University of Tulsa.

For people who haven’t been active in a long time, “they’re almost like a kid in their training age. Their room for gain is huge, but they’re going to have muscle soreness or injuries if they don’t start slow,” he says.

West recommends starting with a walking program, supplemented with some weight training on machines. Because lifting free weights requires balancing the body while lifting, weight lifting machines are a good place to start because people can “just sit in a comfortable position and focus on one muscle group,” he says.

“A lot of times people are sitting at their job ten hours a day and then think they can go and work out,” says Wendy Dolen, exercise physiologist and wellness coordinator at M-Healthy at the University of Michigan. She agrees with walking as a starting point for those new to working out, but also emphasizes moving throughout the day so that the workouts are such a shock to the body. “Answer the telephone standing, hand-deliver a message, anything to incorporate movement into your day as well,” she says.

With those who are new to working out, there’s always a high risk of falling back onto their sedentary ways, says Peter Walters, associate professor in the Applied Health Science Department, Wheaton College. “Half of people who begin an exercise program aren’t continuing after two months. My thought is, ‘What is an activity that someone cannot just do, but enjoy?’,” he says. “For the elderly that’s often walking, for younger people that tends to be some kind of group exercise class or activity.”

View the original article here

http://is.gd/59ba81